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    Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds: Compiled from Notes by W. H. Hudson
    Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds: Compiled from Notes by W. H. Hudson
    Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds: Compiled from Notes by W. H. Hudson
    Ebook171 pages2 hours

    Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds: Compiled from Notes by W. H. Hudson

    By Linda Gardiner and W. H. Hudson

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    First published in 1923, this book deals with the various endangered and recently-extinct birds of contemporary Britain. “Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds” is profusely illustrated and contains interesting historical information, detailed descriptions, anecdotes, and other notable information relating to the birds treated. Highly recommended for those with an interest in ornithology. Contents include: “Pelican, Pelicanus Onocrotalus”, “Crane, Grus Cinerea”, “White Spoonbill, Platalea Leucorodia”, “Capercaillie, Tetrao Urogallus”, “Avocet, Recurvirostra Avocetta”, “Great Bustard, Otis Tarda”, “Black-Tailed Godwit, Limosa Belgica”, “Great Auk, Alca Impennis”, “Goshawk, Astur Palumbarius”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on ornithology.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherA Thousand Fields
    Release dateFeb 2, 2018
    ISBN9781528784337
    Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds: Compiled from Notes by W. H. Hudson

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      Book preview

      Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds - Linda Gardiner

      RARE, VANISHING, AND LOST

      BRITISH BIRDS

      Copyright © 2017 Read Books Ltd.

      This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      RARE

      VANISHING & LOST

      BRITISH BIRDS

      COMPILED FROM NOTES BY

      W. H. HUDSON

      BY

      LINDA GARDINER

      OSPREY (Pandion haliaëtus)

      One-fifth natural size

      Ornithology

      Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Etymologically, the word ‘ornithology’ derives from the ancient Greek ὄρνις ornis (bird) and λóγος logos (rationale or explanation). The science of ornithology has a long history and studies on birds have helped develop several key concepts in evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches and conservation. Whilst early ornithology was principally concerned with descriptions and distributions of species, ornithologists today seek answers to very specific questions, often using birds as models to test hypotheses or predictions based on theories. However, most modern biological theories apply across taxonomic groups, and consequently, the number of professional scientists who identify themselves as ‘ornithologists’ has declined. That this specific science has become part of the biological mainstream though, is in itself a testament to the field’s importance.

      Humans observed birds from the earliest times, and Stone Age drawings are among the oldest indications of an interest in birds, primarily due to their importance as a food source. One of the first key texts on ornithology was Aristotle’s Historia Animalium (350 BC), in which he noted the habit of bird migration, moulting, egg laying and life span. He also propagated several, unfortunately false myths, such as the idea that swallows hibernated in winter. This idea became so well established, that even as late as 1878, Elliott Coues (an American surgeon, historian and ornithologist) could list as many as 182 contemporary publications dealing with the hibernation of swallows. In the Seventeenth century, Francis Willughby (1635–1672) and John Ray (1627–1705) came up with the first major system of bird classification that was based on function and morphology rather than on form or behaviour, this was a major breakthrough in terms of scientific thought, and Willughby's Ornithologiae libri tres (1676), completed by John Ray is often thought to mark the beginning of methodical ornithology. It was not until the Victorian era though, with the emergence of the gun and the concept of natural history, that ornithology emerged as a specialized science. This specialization led to the formation in Britain of the British Ornithologists' Union in 1858, and the following year, its journal The Ibis was founded.

      This sudden spurt in ornithology was also due in part to colonialism. The bird collectors of the Victorian era observed the variations in bird forms and habits across geographic regions, noting local specialization and variation in widespread species. The collections of museums and private collectors grew with contributions from various parts of the world. This spread of the science meant that many amateurs became interested in ‘bird watching’ – with real possibilities to contribute knowledge. As early as 1916, Julian Huxley wrote a two part article in the Auk, noting the tensions between amateurs and professionals and suggesting that the ‘vast army of bird-lovers and bird-watchers could begin providing the data scientists needed to address the fundamental problems of biology.’ Organizations were started in many countries and these grew rapidly in membership, most notable among them being the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), founded in 1889 in Britain and the Audubon Society, founded in 1885 in the US.

      Today, the science of ornithology is thriving, with many practical and economic applications such as the management of birds in food production (grainivorous birds, such as the Red billed Quelea are a major agricultural pest in parts of Africa), and the study of birds, as carriers of human diseases, such as Japanese Encephalitis, West Nile Virus, and H5N1. Of course, many species of birds have been driven to (or near) extinction by human activities, and hence ornithology has played an important part in conservation, utilising many location specific approaches. Critically endangered species such as the California Condor have been captured and bred in captivity, and it is hoped that many more birds can be saved in a like manner.

      FOREWORD

      FOR some years before his death Mr. Hudson had been anxious to prepare an enlarged edition of the pamphlet Lost British Birds which he wrote in 1894 for the Society (now the Royal Society) for the Protection of Birds. In the midst of much other work that he also hoped to accomplish, held back by weariness and ill-health, but constantly urged on by the sharpest and saddest of all goads—the consciousness that but little time remained to him for the completion of any task,—this book seemed to be rarely absent from his thoughts. He referred to it the last time I saw him, deploring that the progress he had made was not greater, owing to his absence from his books during the winter and spring spent in Cornwall, and to his pre-occupation with A Hind in Richmond Park. He spoke then of the increased need for such a book and of the birds to be included in it.

      In the early pamphlet he had written of thirteen birds which he held to be practically lost to Britain as breeding species. More than a quarter of a century had passed; a greatly increased body of ornithologists and naturalists had arisen; further laws had been made for the preservation and protection of wild birds: but with what result? One bird, the little St. Kilda Wren, which had been added by way of appendix to the pamphlet, had been rescued by a special Act of Parliament from extermination at the hands of collectors. In the Conclusion to Lost British Birds Mr. Hudson had written: No sooner had the news gone abroad that lone St. Kilda’s Isle possessed one little song bird of her own—a Wren that differed somewhat from the familiar Wren—than it was invaded by the noble army of collectors, who did not mind its loneliness and distance from the mainland so long as they secured something for their cabinets, and the result of their invasion is that the St. Kilda Wren no longer exists. This last sentence was happily not quite true; it was written in a hasty note when statements were put forth that the bird was extinct. The little Wren was found still to survive, and the Act obtained by Sir Herbert Maxwell, a vice-president of the Society for the Protection of Birds, gave it a new lease of life. In the case of one of the lost species, the Bittern, there was also, after twenty-five years, a gleam of hope. The Bittern continues indeed to be no sooner seen than shot in every part of England where it appears, with the exception of a single district, but in that district, under the most zealous protection, it has once again nested.

      On the other side of the account had to be named at least as many species again as those on the original list. Mr. Hudson had commissioned the artist to paint pictures of twenty-five birds for the new work, but it is by no means certain that these comprise the full number of which he intended to write. He wished to include this time not only those species which were once more or less abundant in Britain and had been exterminated or brought to the verge of extermination, but also species less common which were becoming excessively scarce through persecution, and rare species which had proved themselves ready to increase and multiply in this country but are invariably harried and done to death when attempting to do so. Have you, he wrote to me in 1921, any notes of the Quail? Hoopoe? Golden Oriole? Roseate Tern? Red-necked Phalarope? Kite—has he quite gone? It will be seen that he decided to include four of these birds. Hoopoe and Phalarope were apparently discarded, or possibly left for further consideration, with one or two other suggested species, such as the Dartford Warbler and the Chough.

      The twenty-five birds in this book are fairly typical. One of them is wholly extinct; others are entirely lost to Great Britain; others again exist in such small numbers as to be unknown to all except the men who seek them in small and scattered areas; and these seekers are for the most part bent on further reducing the number in order to add specimens to private collections. In the concluding lines of Lost British Birds Mr. Hudson summed up the case as follows:

      It is very difficult to determine which of the following three inveterate bird-destroyers have done and are doing the most to alter, and, from the nature-lover’s point of view, to degrade, the character of our bird population—The Cockney sportsman, who kills for killing’s sake; the gamekeeper, who has set down the five-and-twenty most interesting indigenous species as vermin to be extirpated; or, third and last, the greedy collector, whose methods are as discreditable as his action is injurious.

      In later years he came more and more to the conviction that the collector is by far the greatest and most dangerous bird-enemy of the three. True, the hawks and harriers had been and were being done to death by gamekeepers, who still set their merciless gins for the torture and death of owls and falcons, and aimed their guns at any large bird their prejudiced zeal imagined inimical to big bags of game. I think there was no sentence uttered by a public speaker which Mr. Hudson more loved to quote than that spoken with sonorous emphasis by Mr. R. Bosworth Smith at one of the annual meetings of the Society (and incorporated in one of the chapters of his book Bird Life and Bird Lore) about the soullessness of the shooting tenant or shooting syndicate, by whom the animal world is divided into game and vermin and the keeper is bidden, in the words of poor old brain-stricken King Lear, to "kill, kill, kill, kill, kill,

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